Diane Chamberlain's Blog - Posts Tagged "point"

As some of you may know, for the past several years Google has made books "searchable" online. In other words, they scanned nearly all books--regardless of whether or not said books were still copyrighted--to make the contents searchable by anyone on the Internet. The Authors Guild brought suit against Google for copyright infringement on behalf of all authors and won. It's way too complicated an issue to go into here, but the upshot is that all authors have to slog through a registry of their books, in every language and edition, and state whether they "opt in" or "opt out" with regard to making their books searchable. I started this task and clearly realized it would take days to complete, so I asked my trusty assistant to take over. She quickly discovered how onerous a task I'd assigned her, but she at least got to giggle as she searched for my foreign titles. Many of the titles differ from country to country and she could only figure out which book was which by checking the synopsis using an Internet translation tool . So here, for your enjoyment, is the synopsis of the Italian version of Cypress Point, better known in Italy as Fog Over the Sky -- or something like that.

For years, my readers (and I) have been hoping that some of my older books would become available again. Now it's finally happened, and the reissue of The Courage Tree is only the beginning. Breaking the Silence will be released late in the year, and next year, Summer's Child and Cypress Point will hit the stores.

The Courage Tree is the story of a little girl who disappears during a camping trip and the desperate race against time to find her. (And one of the characters lives in a very cool treehouse. Okay, I know that's not as important as 'the desperate race against time', but I love that treehouse!). Those of you who've alrady read the book will understand why the little girl, Sophie, is holding a tulip poplar blossom on the cover. And just a little inside scoop: the art director had no tulip poplar blossoms handy, so he (she?) combined two other flowers to create one. A great job, I think!

You can find The Courage Tree at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. I hope you enjoy it and that you'll let me know what you think once you've read it.

I played around with this title until I liked the rhythm of it. A more apt subject heading might be "miscellany", but that doesn't have much of a ring to it. So here we go!

•Podcast: One of my neighbors, high-schooler Kelly Williamson, had to create a podcast for a school assignment and she asked if I'd agree to be interviewed. She was a delightful interviewer full of great questions, and the podcast of the interview can be heard here.

•Kindle: Do you have one? Some of my older (as well as my newer) books are available in Kindle format. You can find the following books at Amazon's Kindle Store: Before the Storm, The Courage Tree, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, Summer's Child, Kiss River, Her Mother's Shadow, The Bay at Midnight, and Cypress Point.

•Newsletters: My latest e-newsletter will be sent out on May 26th. It's so pretty! If you haven't signed up to receive my e-newsletters, you can do so here.

•Song: I joined a choir at the church I recently started attending. I used to sing with an interfaith gospel-ly type choir in Northern Virginia and I adored it, but we didn't use music (needed our hands free to clap, you know). I know how to read music, sort of, in that I know an A from a G (I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I played the accordian as a wee tot), but I simply do not understand how people can look at those notes and sing them without hearing them played first. I'm in awe! I'm also determined to learn how to do this. All advice is welcome!

•Bonus: This just in! A new review of Secrets She Left Behind. "(Chamberlain) explores the psychological complexity of a family pushed to its limits. . . the alternating narratives allow plenty of insights into the characters' motives while creating intrigue and suspense." I love it! Secrets She Left Behind will be released on May 26th, just a few days away, but it's available for preorder everywhere.